Marsh Scullcap

This little plant grows in places where the soil is wet and disturbed by let's say tractors or wild boar. It is rather common and flowers at the end of summer, sometimes in large amounts. It even grows in corn fields, if there has been enough rain.

Apparently it can grow even when herbicides applied in spring have done their work.






Marsh Scullcap (Scutellaria galericulata) is an at first sight rather inconspicuous member of the Mint (Lamiaceae) family. It is not even aromatic, like most other Mints.







Flowers always appear two by two. In the picture the 'scullcap' is clearly visible; a kind of helmet-like protrusion on the calyx. What function does it have? No idea.






Here a well-developed plant, new square branches are developing above the leaves of the main stem. And how pretty are the flowers!

Guelder Rose

It is berry season, and this year there is a lot to eat for the birds.





As, for an exemple, the fruits of the Guelder Rose (Viburnum opulus). Its boughs bend over under their weight. The berries come in bunches and they are round, shiny, slightly transparent drupes.






A ray of sunshine embellishes them still more. The leaves, lobed like Maple leaves, already begin to change into autumn colour.






The flowers also are not to be overlooked. They appear in May. The small flowers in the centre of the corymb are fertile, the larger ones on the outside are not. They make the flowering more visible to insects.






Guelder Rose is a bush that grows on humid soils. Here they screen a small stream from our view.

Marsh Fern

Most ferns need humid surrounding to feel at ease and the Marsh Fern (Thelypteris palustris) still more than most other ferns. This beautiful plant is rather uncommon, probably because its prefered habitats, marshlands and wetlands, get more and more scarce.






Here it grows in a wet meadow besides a small stream, nearly hidden between Irises and Sedges. Its roots spread and its fronds grow everywhere.






They are a beautiful tender green and subtly pinnate.






Fertile fronds are somewhat larger. Edges of the pinnules are curled around masses of dark spores.






No, a bit of an inundation is not a problem. In spring, when all streams and ponds overflow, its new fronds just go on unfirling towards the light.

Wild Angelica

The large umbels of Wild Angelica (Angelica sylvestris) show off in this poplar plantation near a small stream. In a good year this majestic plant can grow easily two metrres high. Here the soil is wet enough and this spring there was a lot of rain, so everything goes well for Wild Angelica.

Look at details of this plant, it is worthwhile.





Every umbel has two dozens of little umbels on stalks that grow out of the central axis, and every little umbel in its turn has dozens of creamy flowers on still smaller stalks that grow out of the center of those small umbels. The stamina are much longer as the petals and protrude invitingly towards passing insects. A big Rose Chafer (Cetonia aurata) took to it, it does not eat just the stamina but also the rest of the flowers.


Here below some leaf sheaths in spring.





Above right the sheath ends into three leaf stems. The sheat to the left is thick and rounded because it still contains the buds of the new flowering stem that will grow out of it soon. And there is a beautiful pattern of hairs, ridges and coloured nerfs.






At the end of summer leaves are often a bit worn down. The weather, insects and diseases did some damage. Leaves are pinnate and have fine dents.

Visible parts of the plant die in winter, but brown round stalks stay around intil spring. Not much is left from the umbels, but some seeds still adhere to them.

Perforate Saint-John's-wort

Perforate Saint-John's-wort (Hypericum perforatum) is a real summer plant. Right now its yellow flowers are nearly everywhere. Roafdsides, abandoned yards, cultivated fields, gardens, forest edges, even in town. It does not especially prefer certain kinds of soil and it can withstand a lot of summer drought. 

Sometimes there are only a few plants, sometimes Saint-John's-wort grows in large colonies, as here in an field left fallow this year.

Every flower has five petals, in the midst of them a paintbrush of stamina. On the rim of the petals there are tiny black spots. Those are glands and they are typical for Saint-John's-worts, nearly all species have them, not only on petals but also on green parts of the plant. 

The stems have many branches and every branch has flowers. There are small, longish leaves.

After flowering and fructification the dead stems do not disappear at once. They turn a reddish brown or nearly black colour. Beautiful with some hoarfrost!

Creeping Thistle

A July morning, just after sunrise, in a fallow field.






The first sun rays lighten up the stalks of all plants here. Most of them are Creeping Thistle (Cirsium arvense) with its white silky heads, and there is also Common Andryala (Andryala integrifolia) with its much smaller yellow flowerheads, still closed at this time of the day.






Some weeks ago it was like this, the Thistles still in full bloom with lilac flowers, and here and there an Andryala. Creeping Thistle is a perennial plant and it can appear in large amounts when circumstances are what they should be. A good soil, not much competition from other plants, laboured but not too recently so last year's plants can develop and spread.





At the lower part of the stem prickly leaves make you don(t want to touch the Creeping Thistle, but upwards the oval flowerheads sit on stems without any thorns. Insects love them. Most common thistle species belong to two genera, Carduus and Cirsium. Species from the first genus have simple pappus hairs without ramifications on their fruits, the pappus hairs of the last genus are like a feather, with ramifications. Well, it is a detail and not easy to see.







Now flowering is over, and the fruits are nearly ripe and ready to fly away.

Bird's Foot Trefoil

If you make a walk in summer you cannot avoid meeting Bird's Foot Trefoil ( (Lotus corniculatus).

 
Here, besides a path between fields left fallow this year it grows abundantly.

 
Hundreds of flowerheads with  butterfly-shaped flowers grow here.

During the day the flowers are turned upwards, but when night falls, they fold downwards. Here, early in the morning when there are still dewdrops around, they are asleep. As the fly seems to be also, it does not look that much awake.

 
Bird's Foot Tréfoil is very variable. There are plants with oval leaves and more or less horizontal branches, and other plants with straight leaves and vertical stems.

There are nearly always some orange flowers between the yellow ones.

 

Now the fruits are developing. They are long straight cylindrical pods, yes, a bit like bird's feet, including nails!